On the edition of the Exploring Mind and Body we bring you Secular Meditation with Rick Heller who literally wrote the book on this topic. Rick tells an interesting story of how he tried meditation himself to improve his health before he actually believed in it.

We have a number of take aways from Secular Meditation as we go through this interview and touch on various topics throughout the book.

Who is Rick Heller?

Rick Heller leads meditations at the Humanist Community at Harvard. A freelance journalist, he has written for the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Buddhadharma, Free Inquiry, Tikkun, and Wise Brain Bulletin. He received a master’s degree in journalism from Boston University, a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from MIT.

Show Notes:

How Rick got into meditation

what is secular meditation

happiness and external circumstances

how to release anxiety with meditation

feeling stressed out

breathing meditation – pay attention to your respiratory system

be mindful in all areas

how being more focused can improve many areas of your life

Is meditation self centred

day dreaming meditation

softening your gaze

Rick talks about loving kindness meditation in the interview, so I thought you might enjoy watching him perform what he talks about to give you the option to do it with him if you like.

Thank you so much for your interest in this show of Exploring Mind and Body, if you haven’t done so already please take a moment and leave a quick rating and review of the show in iTunes by clicking below. It will keep us delivering valuable content each week and give others an opportunity to find the show as well.